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USS Potemkin (NCC-1657)
There have been two Federation starships to bear the name USS ''Potemkin. USS ''Potemkin (NCC-1657) The first Starship Potemkin was a ''Constitution''-class starship in service in the late 23rd century. In 2268, the Potemkin was part of a small task force that participated in war games to field test the experimental M-5 computer, which had been designed by Doctor Richard Daystrom. The M-5 was installed aboard the Potemkin's sister ship, the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS Enterprise]]. When the M-5 unit suffered a disastrous malfunction during simulated combat, it attacked the other Starfleet ships with full phasers rather than minimum-strength beams that were standard for such situations. At least 500 people aboard the ''Lexington'' and the ''Excalibur'' were killed in the initial attack. The Potemkin and ''Hood'' attempted to retreat, but were nonetheless hit numerous times by full phasers from the Enterprise. This resulted in an unspecified number of casualties. Following the destruction of the Excalibur, the Potemkin and other two remaining ships were ordered to destroy the Enterprise to end its threat. Fortunately, the Enterprise was able to deactivate the M-5 computer before the three-ship battle force attacked. (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer") In 2269, the Potemkin was scheduled to rendezvous with the Enterprise in the Beta Aurigae system. The two ships were assigned to conduct gravitational studies of that binary system. The Enterprise, however, was diverted by a distress call from Camus II causing the mission with the Potemkin to be delayed. (TOS: "Turnabout Intruder") Later that year, the Potemkin was ordered to transfer a shipment of the life-saving medicine, strobolin, from Beta Canopus to the freighter, [[USS Huron|USS Huron]]. The Huron was then to transfer the life-saving drug to the Enterprise so that it would be received within the three-day timeframe needed to cure Spock's choriocytosis infection. (TAS: "The Pirates of Orion") The Potemkin was among the starships that would have been assembled for the abandoned assault code-named Operation: Retrieve, which would have rescued Captain James Kirk and Doctor Leonard McCoy from Qo'noS in 2293. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) :The registry of the ''Potemkin is considered to be apocryphal. See the Constitution class article for the full explanation. The icon representing the Potemkin on the Operation Retrieve chart was a Constitution, according to Michael Okuda. However, all ships on that chart save the ''USS ''Excelsior had the same icon, so it remains unclear as to whether this refers to the same vessel.'' USS Potemkin (NCC-18253) The second Starship Potemkin was an ''Excelsior''-class starship that served in the 24th century. In 2361, the Potemkin was the last Federation starship to make contact with the failed colony on planet Turkana IV until 2367. The personnel of the Potemkin were warned by the colony's ruling cadres that anyone transporting to the colony would be killed. It was also in 2361, that Lieutenant William T. Riker was assigned to the Potemkin. During his tenure on this ship, Riker led an away team to evacuate the science outpost on Nervala IV because of a dangerous energy distortion field covering the planet. It was not realized at the time that this distortion field caused the Potemkin's transporter to malfunction, materializing a duplicate Riker on the planet's surface. The Potemkin left orbit, unknowingly abandoning the duplicate Riker for eight years. The original Riker was promoted to Lieutenant Commander after this rescue mission. However, his duplicate was rediscovered in 2369 by the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)|USS Enterprise-D]] and subsequently began a new life as Thomas Riker and reassigned to the [[USS Gandhi|USS Gandhi]]. It was also on the Potemkin that Riker tried an unconventional tactic of positioning the ship over a planet's magnetic pole and shutting down the power, in order to confuse an opponent ship's sensors. In 2368, the Potemkin ferried Dr. Toby Russell, a neurogeneticist, to the Enterprise-D in order to help Lt. Worf recover from a severe spinal injury. During the Dominion War, the Potemkin was part of the Ninth Fleet around Bajor. In 2374 she visited Deep Space 9 to be repaired along with the Exeter, the Sutherland and the Akagi. :A small error in the ''Star Trek Encyclopedia caused for two different registry numbers for this vessel to be listed in different sections of the book. The error was corrected in later editions, and it is definitely NCC-18253.'' :Named after Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, a famous Russian army commander during the 18th century. Potemkin de:USS Potemkin